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Taller de Armado y Programación de Robots en el 2do. Campamento Científico del Uruguay
Este innovador taller, que dio inicio a un Programa llamado "Robot Diplomacy", de la embajada de Estados Unidos en Uruguay, tuvo lugar en el marco del 2do. Campamento Latinoamericano de Ciencias, que lleva adelante la Dirección de Innovación Ciencia y Tecnología del MEC, con el apopo de ANEP y UTU en Minas, departamento de Lavalleja. La Ingeniera Mecánica Theresa Dixon, de la embajada de los Estados Unidos en Montevideo, fue la encargada de dictar este taller.
[U.S. Embassy Photo: Pablo Castro / Copyright info]
The U.S. Men’s National Volleyball Team and the Iranian Men's National Volleyball Team pose for a photo after their practices in Los Angeles, California, on August 8, 2014. Team USA Volleyball, with support from the U.S. Department of State, is hosting the Iranian National Men’s Volleyball Team for a series of four friendly matches in southern California from August 9-16, 2014. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]
Taller de Armado y Programación de Robots en el 2do. Campamento Científico del Uruguay
Este innovador taller, que dio inicio a un Programa llamado "Robot Diplomacy", de la embajada de Estados Unidos en Uruguay, tuvo lugar en el marco del 2do. Campamento Latinoamericano de Ciencias, que lleva adelante la Dirección de Innovación Ciencia y Tecnología del MEC, con el apopo de ANEP y UTU en Minas, departamento de Lavalleja. La Ingeniera Mecánica Theresa Dixon, de la embajada de los Estados Unidos en Montevideo, fue la encargada de dictar este taller.
[U.S. Embassy Photo: Pablo Castro / Copyright info]
Taller de Armado y Programación de Robots en el 2do. Campamento Científico del Uruguay
Este innovador taller, que dio inicio a un Programa llamado "Robot Diplomacy", de la embajada de Estados Unidos en Uruguay, tuvo lugar en el marco del 2do. Campamento Latinoamericano de Ciencias, que lleva adelante la Dirección de Innovación Ciencia y Tecnología del MEC, con el apopo de ANEP y UTU en Minas, departamento de Lavalleja. La Ingeniera Mecánica Theresa Dixon, de la embajada de los Estados Unidos en Montevideo, fue la encargada de dictar este taller.
[U.S. Embassy Photo: Pablo Castro / Copyright info]
IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano met with high ranking officials from Honduras at the IAEA Headquarters in Vienna, Austria. 19 September 2014.
From left to right: Mr Luis Carlos Longoria Gandara, IAEA Director, Division for Latin America, Department of Technical Cooperation, HE Mr Francis Contreras, Vice-Minister of Health, HE Ms Maria del Carmen Nasser de Ramos, Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano, HE Mr Jose Galdames, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment and HE Mr. Giampaolo Rizzo Alvarado, Ambassador, Residient Representative of Honduras to the IAEA.
Photo Credit: Dean Calma / IAEA
Taller de Armado y Programación de Robots en el 2do. Campamento Científico del Uruguay
Este innovador taller, que dio inicio a un Programa llamado "Robot Diplomacy", de la embajada de Estados Unidos en Uruguay, tuvo lugar en el marco del 2do. Campamento Latinoamericano de Ciencias, que lleva adelante la Dirección de Innovación Ciencia y Tecnología del MEC, con el apopo de ANEP y UTU en Minas, departamento de Lavalleja. La Ingeniera Mecánica Theresa Dixon, de la embajada de los Estados Unidos en Montevideo, fue la encargada de dictar este taller.
[U.S. Embassy Photo: Pablo Castro / Copyright info]
IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano met with Kentaro Sonoura, State Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, during the International Conference on Nuclear Security: Commitments and Actions at the Agency headquarters in Vienna, Austria. 5 December 2016
Photo Credit: Dean Calma / IAEA
Taller de Armado y Programación de Robots en el 2do. Campamento Científico del Uruguay
Este innovador taller, que dio inicio a un Programa llamado "Robot Diplomacy", de la embajada de Estados Unidos en Uruguay, tuvo lugar en el marco del 2do. Campamento Latinoamericano de Ciencias, que lleva adelante la Dirección de Innovación Ciencia y Tecnología del MEC, con el apopo de ANEP y UTU en Minas, departamento de Lavalleja. La Ingeniera Mecánica Theresa Dixon, de la embajada de los Estados Unidos en Montevideo, fue la encargada de dictar este taller.
[U.S. Embassy Photo: Pablo Castro / Copyright info]
The U.S. Men’s National Volleyball Team plays the Iranian Men's National Volleyball Team in the first of four friendly matches in Los Angeles, California, on August 9, 2014. Team USA Volleyball, with support from the U.S. Department of State, is hosting the Iranian National Men’s Volleyball Team for a series of four friendly matches in southern California between August 9-16, 2014. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]
IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano meets with HE Mr Shin Dong-ik, Deputy Minister for Multilateral and Global Affairs of the Republic of Korea at the IAEA Headquarters in Vienna, Austria. 27 May 2014
Photo Credit: Dean Calma / IAEA
Opening Remarks by Secretary of State John Kerry
Before the House Foreign Affairs Committee
SECRETARY KERRY: Well, thank you very much, Chairman Royce, Ranking Member Engel, all the members of the committee. It’s my privilege to be here today. I’m glad to have this opportunity. Let me begin by both congratulating you and thanking you for the vote that took place yesterday. We are enormously appreciative because stepping up the efforts with respect to the moderate opposition is an essential piece in any strategy against ISIL, and I’ll go into that a little bit in a moment.
I know the Chairman knows I have a hard stop on this because I have to be at the White House for the meeting with President Poroshenko, so I’m going to – I’ll try to really abbreviate and I’ll try to keep my answers short, but I also want to make sure I answer them – your questions sufficiently.
For more than 10 years Iraq has been a source of debate and some disagreement, obviously, up on the Hill, in the country. I think we’d waste time today if we focused on sort of rehashing past debates when the issue that confronts us is really straightforward and one on which we ought to all agree. ISIL has to be defeated, plain and simple, end of story; has to be. And collectively, I think every single one of us is going to be measured by what we do in order to guarantee that that happens. And the same is true on the international level. Even in a region that has been virtually defined by division over these past years, leaders who couldn’t find any agreement for 11 years and who agree on very little in general are all in agreement that ISIS has to be defeated.
We’ve been focused on ISIL, I will tell you, since it morphed into al-Qaida in Iraq in 2013 and picked up AQI’s mission under a different banner. And obviously, prior to that we were focused on it in the full context in what we were doing with respect to al-Qaida. In January, we ramped up our assistance to the Iraqi Security Forces, increasing our intelligence surveillance, reconnaissance–ISR– and flights to get a better picture of the battlefield and in order to expedite weapons like the Hellfire missiles for the Iraqis so that they could bring those to bear in the fight.
Early this summer, the ISIL threat accelerated when it effectively obliterated the Iraq-Syria border and the Mosul Dam fell. And there are complicated reasons for why that happened. It’s not just a straightforward they-ran-over-them deal. It has to do with the kind of army that Prime Minister Maliki began to create. It has to do with Shia and Sunni. It has to do with a lot of other ingredients.
But as a result of that, we further surged our ISR missions immediately over Iraq. We immediately set up joint operation centers in Baghdad and Erbil. And our Special Forces conducted immediately a very detailed assessment of the Iraqi Security Forces, because we needed to know in order to be able to answer your questions and the questions of the American people what might we be getting into here. Do we have an Iraqi army that’s capable of fighting? To what degree? What will it take to reconstitute it? So whatever judgments are coming to you now are coming to you as a consequence of that assessment.
And in addition to that, I’m proud to say that thanks to American engagement, ISIL’s movement, which was rapid at that point in time and perilous, was stopped. Together with the Peshmerga and the brave, courageous souls, the Kurds who stood up, we were able to not only stop them there but to liberate Amirli, which had been under siege, liberate Sinjar Mountain, to begin to bring our efforts to bear on Haditha Dam and make a difference. And by the time ISIL had launched its offensive in the north, President Obama began airstrikes to begin with on a humanitarian basis to protect American personnel and prevent major catastrophes such as the fall of Haditha Dam or the maintenance of the Mosul Dam and also to bolster the Iraqi Security Forces and the Kurdish forces.
To date, we’ve launched more than 150 airstrikes. And I know that sounds like – it doesn’t sound like – that’s very few compared to the 16,000 that was mentioned earlier. But it’s a different deal right now, because I believe we rightfully, absolutely needed to get in place a structured, clear, Iraqi-chosen Iraqi effort that provided a government with which we can work going forward. If you didn’t have a government with which you could work going forward, nothing that we tried to do would have had the impact necessary. So the platforms we put in place last June have enabled us to be able to do what we’ve done now, and there’s absolute clarity to the fact that we blunted ISIL’s momentum, created the time and space to be able to put together a comprehensive strategy, get the inclusive government, and build a broad coalition. And that’s the way we ought to go at this.
We’ve redoubled our efforts to move the Iraqi political process forward. We’re clear-eyed about the fact that any strategy against ISIL is only going to succeed if it has this strong and inclusive government in Iraq, and I hope you noticed a photograph on the front page of The Wall Street Journal two days ago that showed Prince Saud al-Faisal, the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, arm-in-arm with the Kurdish president of Iraq and with the Shia foreign minister of Iraq. They all came together in Jeddah, and that’s why I went to Baghdad last week – to meet with this new Iraqi Government and make certain of what they were willing to do and were committing to us, and encouraged them to discuss in detail their commitment against ISIL and especially their commitment to unify the country and do the things that haven’t been done for these eight years or more.
What happened in Jeddah was literally historic in terms of the recent history of Iraq and the conflicts of that region. Iraq is now no longer isolated from its neighbors. Last week, the Iraqis weren’t just invited to come to Jeddah, but they were warmly received by the Saudis and by the rest of the countries there. And the Saudis announced in that meeting that they will reopen an embassy in Baghdad. That’s a big deal, and it’s essential. President Obama outlined the broader strategy in detail the other day. I’m not going to go through it all, but I just quickly highlight it because it’s important to continually remember this is not just an American effort, number one, and number two, it is not just military, not just kinetic, even within the military.
It is critical that we all understand how complicated it is, be – precisely because we’re not just focused on taking the enemy out on the battlefield, but we have to take out an entire network. I don’t know how many of you saw it today, but the Australians today arrested a large group of people that they suspected of being ISIL members, supporters, sympathizers in Australia who were planning some kind of extravaganza of brutality in Australia. So we have to decimate and discredit a militant cult masquerading as a religious movement and claiming with no legitimacy whatsoever to be a state. And it’s – there are similarities to what we’ve been doing with al-Qaida these last years, but frankly, it’s different for some of the reasons that Chairman Royce pointed out. These folks have now taken over territory in ways that al-Qaida never did. They have access to money in ways that al-Qaida never did. They have access to weapons that they captured from Iraqis, and they’re holding that territory and beginning to try to build a capacity for sustainability that challenges everybody.
So certainly, military support is going to be one component of this. And I sit here today – while I can’t go into all of the details at this particular moment for a lot of obvious reasons, I’m here to tell you that we have people in Europe committed to being part of kinetic effort; outside of Europe in other parts of the world committed; and in the region, Arab commitments to be part of this effort. In Syria, the on-the-ground combat will be done by the moderate opposition, which is Syria’s best counterweight to extremists like ISIL. And we can talk more about that moderate opposition – what it looks like, who it is, what they’re capable of today, what they could be doing – as we go forward.
In addition to the military campaign, we obviously need to dry up the illicit funding sources for al-Qaida. We have to stop the foreign fighters, people with passports from some of your states, people who could return here with experience in fighting in Syria or Iraq, and come back and engage in activities here. And the evidence of that is not in my saying it; a fighter who was in Syria traversed back through Turkey and other places, came back to Europe, a French sympathizer, went to Brussels and shot four people outside of a synagogue in Brussels.
So I emphasize that when we say in addition there’s another major step, and that will be to continue to deliver humanitarian assistance and to make a difference for the people on the ground so that they don’t get sucked in by the money that an ISIL can spend or even pay them.
In addition, we have a major effort to undertake to repudiate the insulting distortion of Islam that ISIL is spreading. I was very encouraged to hear yesterday that Saudi Arabia’s top clerical entity, 21 clerics, unanimously came out and declared again that terrorism is a heinous crime under Sharia law, and more importantly declared that ISIL has nothing to do with Islam and that it is, in fact, the order of Satan. And this is vital because we know that preventing any individual from joining ISIL, from getting to the battlefield in the first place, is actually the most effective measure that we can take. The top – the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia last week said that ISIL is the number one enemy of Islam and it might serve us all well to focus on it not in a name that gives it a state, but to focus on it as the enemy of Islam.
That’s why I spent the last days in Europe and in the Middle East building this coalition together with others, countries, and that’s why I’ll be tomorrow in New York at the UN Security Council at a session that is aimed to build up this coalition even more and to get even more specific about commitments from each country as to what they’re going to do. We have more than 50 countries now contributing in one way or another, with specific understanding of what those countries will do – some will provide ammunition, some will help with the de-legitimizing, some will engage in de-financing, some will engage in military assistance, some in training and assist, some in kinetic activities.
In addition, in New York with me tomorrow will be General John Allen. I think many of you know him, command in Iraq for – in Afghanistan for two years, 2011-2013, and deputy commander of Anbar in Iraq and great experience in the region, great respect in the region, knowledge of the Sunni tribes, of all the folks there that are part of the mix to be able to mobilize action.
And he can help us match up each country’s capabilities with the needs of the coalition. That’s another reason why we can’t lay it all out to you today is because in the Pentagon as well as in our intel community as well as the White House, we are marrying all of the needs with the particular coalition contributors. Ambassador Brett McGurk as well as Assistant Secretary Anne Patterson, who was so much a part of the effort against al-Qaida in Pakistan, are also leading the team. And I commit to you that we will continue to build and enhance the coalition well beyond UNGA.
So with that, I look forward to your questions and I hope we can get through as much as possible. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
# # #
September 18, 2014
Washington, D.C.
Taller de Armado y Programación de Robots en el 2do. Campamento Científico del Uruguay
Este innovador taller, que dio inicio a un Programa llamado "Robot Diplomacy", de la embajada de Estados Unidos en Uruguay, tuvo lugar en el marco del 2do. Campamento Latinoamericano de Ciencias, que lleva adelante la Dirección de Innovación Ciencia y Tecnología del MEC, con el apopo de ANEP y UTU en Minas, departamento de Lavalleja. La Ingeniera Mecánica Theresa Dixon, de la embajada de los Estados Unidos en Montevideo, fue la encargada de dictar este taller.
[U.S. Embassy Photo: Pablo Castro / Copyright info]
Taller de Armado y Programación de Robots en el 2do. Campamento Científico del Uruguay
Este innovador taller, que dio inicio a un Programa llamado "Robot Diplomacy", de la embajada de Estados Unidos en Uruguay, tuvo lugar en el marco del 2do. Campamento Latinoamericano de Ciencias, que lleva adelante la Dirección de Innovación Ciencia y Tecnología del MEC, con el apopo de ANEP y UTU en Minas, departamento de Lavalleja. La Ingeniera Mecánica Theresa Dixon, de la embajada de los Estados Unidos en Montevideo, fue la encargada de dictar este taller.
[U.S. Embassy Photo: Pablo Castro / Copyright info]
IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano meets HE Ms Marie Christine Marghem, Minister of Energy of Belgium at the IAEA Headquarters in Vienna, Austria. 27 February 2015.
Photo Credit: Dean Calma / IAEA
IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano met with United States Senator from Mississippi, Roger Frederick Wicker, on 25 February 2016 at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna, Austria.
Photo Credit: Conleth Brady / IAEA
The WTO Secretariat has circulated a meeting notice and list of items proposed for the next meeting, on 23 July 2012, of the Dispute Settlement Body, which consists of all WTO members and oversees legal disputes among them. The meeting notice is circulated in the form of a document officially called an “airgram”.
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WTO/AIR/398313 JULY 2012
SUBJECT:DISPUTE SETTLEMENT BODY
THE NEXT MEETING OF THE DISPUTE SETTLEMENT BODY WILL BE HELD IN THE CENTRE WILLIAM RAPPARD ON MONDAY, 23 JULY 2012, STARTING AT 10 A.M.
THE FOLLOWING ITEMS ARE PROPOSED FOR THE AGENDA:
1.SURVEILLANCE OF IMPLEMENTATION OF RECOMMENDATIONS ADOPTED BY THE DSB
A.UNITED STATES – SECTION 211 OMNIBUS APPROPRIATIONS ACT OF 1998: STATUS REPORT BY THE UNITED STATES (WT/DS176/11/ADD.116)
B.UNITED STATES – ANTI-DUMPING MEASURES ON CERTAIN HOT-ROLLED STEEL PRODUCTS FROM JAPAN: STATUS REPORT BY THE UNITED STATES (WT/DS184/15/ADD.116)
C.UNITED STATES – SECTION 110(5) OF THE US COPYRIGHT ACT: STATUS REPORT BY THE UNITED STATES (WT/DS160/24/ADD.91)
D.EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES – MEASURES AFFECTING THE APPROVAL AND MARKETING OF BIOTECH PRODUCTS: STATUS REPORT BY THE EUROPEAN UNION (WT/DS291/37/ADD.54)
E.UNITED STATES – ANTI-DUMPING ADMINISTRATIVE REVIEWS AND OTHER MEASURES RELATED TO IMPORTS OF CERTAIN ORANGE JUICE FROM BRAZIL: STATUS REPORT BY THE UNITED STATES (WT/DS382/10/ADD.7)
F.UNITED STATES – DEFINITIVE ANTI-DUMPING AND COUNTERVAILING DUTIES ON CERTAIN PRODUCTS FROM CHINA: STATUS REPORT BY THE UNITED STATES(WT/DS379/12/ADD.6)
G.THAILAND – CUSTOMS AND FISCAL MEASURES ON CIGARETTES FROM THE PHILIPPINES: STATUS REPORT BY THAILAND (WT/DS371/15/ADD.3)
H.UNITED STATES – ANTI-DUMPING MEASURES ON CERTAIN SHRIMP FROM VIET NAM: STATUS REPORT BY THE UNITED STATES (WT/DS404/11/ADD.2)
I.EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES – DEFINITIVE ANTI-DUMPING MEASURES ON CERTAIN IRON OR STEEL FASTENERS FROM CHINA: STATUS REPORT BY THE EUROPEAN UNION (WT/DS397/15)
2.UNITED STATES – CONTINUED DUMPING AND SUBSIDY OFFSET ACT OF 2000: IMPLEMENTATION OF THE RECOMMENDATIONS ADOPTED BY THE DSB
A.STATEMENTS BY THE EUROPEAN UNION AND JAPAN
3.CHINA – MEASURES RELATED TO THE EXPORTATION OF RARE EARTHS, TUNGSTEN AND MOLYBDENUM
A.REQUEST FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A PANEL BY THE UNITED STATES (WT/DS431/6)
B.REQUEST FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A PANEL BY THE EUROPEAN UNION (WT/DS432/6)
C.REQUEST FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A PANEL BY JAPAN (WT/DS433/6)
4.UNITED STATES – COUNTERVAILING MEASURES ON CERTAIN HOT-ROLLED CARBON STEEL FLAT PRODUCTS FROM INDIA
A.REQUEST FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A PANEL BY INDIA (WT/DS436/3)
5.CHINA – COUNTERVAILING AND ANTI-DUMPING DUTIES ON GRAIN ORIENTED FLAT-ROLLED ELECTRICAL STEEL FROM THE UNITED STATES
A.REPORT OF THE PANEL (WT/DS414/R AND WT/DS414/R/ADD.1)
6.UNITED STATES – ANTI-DUMPING MEASURES ON CERTAIN SHRIMP AND DIAMOND SAWBLADES FROM CHINA
A.REPORT OF THE PANEL (WT/DS422/R AND WT/DS422/R/ADD.1)
7.UNITED STATES – CERTAIN COUNTRY OF ORIGIN LABELLING (COOL) REQUIREMENTS
A.REPORT OF THE APPELLATE BODY (WT/DS384/AB/R) AND REPORT OF THE PANEL (WT/DS384/R)
B.REPORT OF THE APPELLATE BODY (WT/DS386/AB/R) AND REPORT OF THE PANEL (WT/DS386/R)
MEMBERS OF THE WTO AND OBSERVER GOVERNMENTS TO WTO BODIES ARE REQUESTED TO INFORM THE SECRETARIAT OF THE NAMES OF THEIR REPRESENTATIVES AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
PASCAL LAMY
******
M. Lamy parle de progrès dans les domaines de la facilitation des échanges et du développement
Faisant le point sur le Cycle de Doha devant la réunion informelle des Chefs de délégation du 17 juillet 2012, le Directeur général Pascal Lamy a indiqué que les négociations sur la facilitation des échanges continuaient à progresser et que la semaine précédente, les Membres avaient adopté plusieurs nouveaux textes et reçu de nouvelles communications. Il a ajouté que les consultations sur le traitement spécial et différencié en faveur des pays en développement menées par le Président avaient été “interactives et constructives” et qu’elles progressaient.
***
Since we last met in a similar format on 7 June, I attended the G-20 Leaders’ summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, and the Rio+20 summit and I will shortly report to you on my participation in these meetings. I have also met with a number of delegations here in Geneva including non-residents at the just concluded 24th session of the Geneva Week.
At the G-20 Summit in Los Cabos, and in light of the dire situation of the world economy, I called for urgent collective action to redouble efforts to strengthen multilateral cooperation to find global solutions to our economic difficulties and risks in order to avoid further trade and investment tensions. I also stressed the importance of ensuring availability and affordability of trade finance, especially for poorer countries in the prevailing economic situation.
You will all have seen the G-20 Leaders’ Declaration and I do not intend to repeat all aspects of it. I will only highlight three points.
First, not only did Leaders note the vulnerability of the global economy with the negative impact on the everyday lives of people, affecting jobs, trade, development and the environment, but they also agreed that multilateralism was of greater importance in the current climate and the best asset to resolve global economic difficulties.
Second, concerned about the rising instances of protectionism, they extended their standstill commitment on measures affecting trade and investment until the end of 2014 and pledged to roll back any new protectionist measures.
Third, recognizing the role and relevance of regional and global value chains in fostering economic growth, employment and development, Leaders encouraged a deepening of discussions on such value chains, including their relationship with trade and investment flows, development and jobs and how to better measure trade flows and their impact across countries. As you know, the Secretariat, under the “Made in the World Initiative”, already started preliminary work in this area. In addition, the theme for our Fourth Global Aid for Trade Review in 2013 will be “Global Value Chains and Private Sector Development”. I would therefore encourage you all to engage in discussions on this important subject including in the CTD [Committee on Trade and Development] and its dedicated session on Aid for Trade.
At the Rio+20 Summit, I highlighted the importance of coherence between trade, sustainable development and environmental policies. I noted that sustainable development had been and was at the heart of the WTO since its inception. I also stressed the importance of concluding the Doha Round, including on environmental issues as a further contribution of the WTO to a greener global economy. Lastly, I emphasized that whilst trade opening can support a green economy, the WTO also had to keep an eye on “green protectionism”.
Turning to our work here in Geneva on the DDA [Doha Development Agenda], technical work has continued in the three areas of trade facilitation, special and differential treatment and DSU [Dispute Settlement Understanding] reform.
The trade facilitation negotiations are continuing to make progress, involving negotiations in the facilitator format and more intensive proponent-driven activities. In addition, the Chair is consulting informally, including at ambassadorial level, to help move the process along. At the Negotiating Group meeting of 9-13 July, members adopted several new texts and received new submissions that will be sent forward to the next round of facilitator activities. The Group also conducted what I believe was a very well attended and successful trade facilitation symposium, focusing on best practice and implementation issues. Negotiations following the same format will continue. The next Negotiating Group meeting is scheduled for the week of 8 October.
Preparations are also under way for a Trade Facilitation Conference for African countries in Nairobi in early November, which is being organized with the African Development Bank.
At its meeting last week, the Secretariat was requested to conduct a second round of its needs assessment exercise for developing countries and LDCs [least-developed countries], aiming to help these members, on request, to bring their national needs assessments up to date and help them to identify the resources that will be needed to meet those needs.
On special and differential treatment, the Chair of the CTD Special Session is continuing with his text-based consultations in three areas of work: namely, the 28 Agreement-specific proposals in Annex C of the draft Cancún Ministerial Declaration, with a view to adopting them in the near future; on the elements of the Monitoring Mechanism; and on the six Agreement-specific proposals under active consideration of the CTD. I understand that these consultations have been interactive and constructive, and are progressing positively.
On DSU reform, work has continued as planned in the negotiations. Meetings were held in June, and a further set of meetings is scheduled for the week of 16 July, focusing on timeframes, developing country interests and remand. This will hopefully complete the current phase of work and pave the way for the next stage as planned. The completion of this phase will allow the Chair and participants to take stock of the progress made and to map next steps.
On rules, although there have been no formal meetings of the Negotiating Group since February, a limited number of delegations have taken up the Chair's invitation issued at that meeting to consult with him bilaterally to express their views on the current situation and ways forward. Little, if any, interest has been expressed in resuming negotiating activities in the short term.
In agriculture, most delegations continue to feel that the 10 outstanding issues identified by the previous Chairs remain the key political issues that need to be resolved before agreement can be reached on agriculture modalities. The views expressed by members on issues that may be candidates for possible early harvest continue to indicate that there is no consensus on such issues at this stage. The Chair has been informed, however, that some delegations are reflecting further and more specific proposals may be submitted after the summer break. The Chair will continue to consult with delegations on the way forward.
The Chair reported on the state of play of the agriculture and cotton negotiations during the 17th Round of Consultation on Cotton Development Assistance on 29 June. The Chair noted that while at MC8 [Eighth Ministerial Conference] members agreed that the mandate for an ambitious, expeditious and specific treatment of cotton in the agriculture negotiations has not changed, it had not yet been possible to reach any concrete outcome on cotton. The Chair will continue to encourage dialogue between all key cotton players to try and get a sense of how the commitments on cotton can be progressed.
On services, activity has increasingly focused on regular work. In this perspective, a services cluster was held during the week of 25 June, with meetings of the regular Council and its subsidiary bodies. I should also note that a group of members have continued their consultations aimed at committing themselves to further services liberalization.
On trade and environment, the Chair convened on 5 July an informal small group consultation with delegations to follow up on previous bilateral consultations and to further explore ideas and suggestions that could take the work of the CTESS [Committee on Trade and Environment Special Session] forward. The Chair will further consult delegations in the coming weeks.
Concerning the work of the TRIPS [Trade-related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights] Special Session on a register for wine and spirit GIs [geographical indications], as indicated in my report of 1 May, the Chairman held bilateral consultations with several delegations, including with regional group coordinators, to see how best to operationalize those elements of the MC8 outcome that relate to the work of the Special Session. He is pursuing his series of consultations, in various formats, and will report in due time to the wider membership.
Finally, on NAMA [non-agricultural market access], since our last meeting, there is no activity to report except that in light of his imminent departure as Chairman of the Negotiating Group on Market Access, Luzius Wasescha will be circulating a report which he intends to introduce to the Negotiating Group at a meeting scheduled for tomorrow.
Let me also briefly touch upon the issue of LDC accessions. The approval next week of the streamlining of the 2002 LDCs accession guidelines will pave the way for a number of acceding LDCs, including Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, to mention but a few, to accelerate their accession processes. But before that, Laos and Yemen's accessions are very close to completion. Let me once again urge that efforts be redoubled to conclude the very few remaining outstanding steps to these important accessions.
Finally, I will, of course, be reporting to the General Council at the end of this month, including on the challenges and opportunities that I believe will be facing us after the summer break.
On 30 April 2014, The Honourable John Hogg, Senator and President of the Australian Senate met with Kwaku Aning, IAEA Deputy Director General and Head of the Department of Technical Cooperation, Daud Mohamad, IAEA Deputy Director General and Head of the Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications, together with other IAEA Senior Staff, during his official visit to the IAEA Headquarters in Vienna, Austria.
Photo Credit: Dean Calma / IAEA
The U.S. Men’s National Volleyball Team plays the Iranian Men's National Volleyball Team in the first of four friendly matches in Los Angeles, California, on August 9, 2014. Team USA Volleyball, with support from the U.S. Department of State, is hosting the Iranian National Men’s Volleyball Team for a series of four friendly matches in southern California between August 9-16, 2014. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]
IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano meets with HE Mr Antonio Carlos Barrios, Health Minister of Paraguay at the IAEA Headquarters in Vienna, Austria. 21 May 2014.
Photo Credit: Dean Calma / IAEA
May 29, 2014, the Embassy of Italy in Washington DC and Young Professionals in Foreign Policy (YPFP) hosts the panel discussion: FOREIGN POLICY AND THE FUTURE OF ENGAGEMENT
Introductory remarks by:
Claudio Bisogniero, Ambassador of Italy to the U.S.
and
Gary Barnabo, President, YPFP
Panel:
Hilary Brandt, Director, Innovative Engagement, U.S. Department of State
Nathaniel Lubin, Acting Director, Digital Strategy, The White House
Adam Smith, Creator, Texts from Hillary
Joe Trippi, Founder, Trippi and Associates
Moderator:
Andreas Sandre, Embassy of Italy
IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano meets HE Mr Erzhan Ahsikbayev, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan and his delegation at the IAEA Headquarters in Vienna, Austria. 23 February 2015.
Photo Credit: Dean Calma / IAEA
SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you all very much for joining us here today. I’m delighted to be joined with my co-chair, Minister Cavusoglu of Turkey, and we’re very grateful for the strong turnout today and the importance of this discussion. This is the 5th ministerial meeting of the Global Counterterrorism Forum. And when we launched this effort just three years ago, we did so with a clear objective: to establish an informal but action-oriented forum that focuses as much on preventing tomorrow’s terrorists as it does on countering today’s.
And collectively, every single one of us are going to be measured by how we carry out this mission. This meeting obviously could not be happening at a more important time. And frankly, it couldn’t include a more important group of partners. Every single country here today is a critical part of the effort to address a global terrorist threat that is more diverse and dispersed than ever before.
Now obviously there are a range of terrorist groups that concern us, and we are laser focused on combatting them. But we gather this week to discuss as priority a threat that has a particular resonance for every country in this room, and that’s ISIL.
ISIL is an organization that knows no bounds, as it has proven. It brutalizes women and girls and sells them off as slaves to jihadists. It forces grown men to their knees, ties their hands behind their back, and shoots them in the head. Fed by illicit funding and a stream of foreign fighters that have come, regrettably, from many of the countries around this table – mine included – it has seized territory, and it has attempted to undertake announced genocide against minority groups like the Yezidis. This kind of barbarity simply has no place in the modern world. And these coldblooded killers, masquerading as a religious movement, need to be stopped.
Now President Obama has laid out a coordinated global strategy to degrade and ultimately defeat ISIL. And we’ve assembled a broad coalition. And last night, by conducting strikes against ISIL, targets inside Syria, we took another major step towards getting the job done. But it will require enormous cooperation and perseverance by everybody.
And I’m very pleased with the meeting I just had with Minister Cavusoglu, who reiterated what President Erdogan said to me the other day when I was in Ankara. Turkey is very much part of this coalition, and Turkey will be very engaged on the frontlines of this effort. But clearly, Turkey had an initial challenge with respect to its hostages, and that being resolved now, Turkey is ready to conduct additional efforts along with the rest of us in order to guarantee success. And we’re very grateful to Turkey for that willingness.
I’ve been very encouraged, as I think all of us engaged in this are, by everybody else’s cooperation, by the overwhelming unity and support for Iraq’s new government, and the anti-ISIL effort at the UN Security Council Ministerial that I chaired last Friday. No civilized country can shirk its responsibility to stop this cancer from spreading.
And all of us understand this is not a question of a few strikes or a few days. There are bigger issues here involved in our efforts to be able to be successful. This requires a common strategy, and we need to focus on the efforts and areas where our collective efforts are going to be the most coordinated and effective against ISIL as well as against other terrorist groups.
We’ve all had conversations about this before. We know that poverty is a problem and it contributes. We know that ungoverned spaces are a problem. We know that bad governance is a problem. We know that large, bulging populations of young people without opportunity and dignity and respect – all of these things contribute to providing recruits for extremism because of their perception of a lack of alternatives.
So we not only need to challenge them on the ground, we need to challenge them in their heads. We need to challenge them with ideas. We need to recapture the legitimacy of religions and we need to make it clear to all groups that stopping the flow of foreign fighters and recruits to this effort will depend on a broader array of choices that we make as leaders.
We obviously have to also do specific tactical things, like cutting off the visas for those who’ve traveled and want to come back, like cutting off funding, and moving to restrict the ability of money to flow to these groups. The threat of foreign terrorist fighters is very real, and we have to start with the uncomfortable reality that security measures alone will not solve this problem. We’re talking about fighters recruited from our own communities and radicalized sufficiently to go fight in wars that are not their own.
The minds of these young men and women are poisoned by terrorists, who brainwash them into committing unspeakable atrocities. Our friend, Julie Bishop, Foreign Minister from Australia, has eloquently talked several times about the pictures of a young nine-year-old child holding a severed head with the parents who support this cultism, standing beside them in approval. That has no place anywhere in any civilized society.
So we have to detect and disrupt foreign terrorist recruitment. We have to share information on risky behavior of known and suspected terrorists and make certain that we’re screening those who are entering our countries. We have to engage in strong counterterrorism laws that make it a crime to travel overseas in order to fight in these illicit enterprises. And we have to make certain that suspected terrorists are ultimately prosecuted under appropriate rule of law.
I want to thank our colleagues from Morocco and the Netherlands for spearheading the forum’s effort to develop the first global set of good practices on stopping the flow of foreign terrorist fighters, which we will adopt here today. The United States will commit more than 40 million now to support this effort. And tomorrow, President Obama will chair an historic summit meeting of the UN Security Council to mobilize the international community around the plan to deal with this shared threat with a particular focus on the work of this forum.
So that’s the first challenge. But a second challenge is addressing the epidemic of kidnapping for ransom, which has created an illicit market that funds extremists and endangers more and more innocent journalists and doctors and humanitarian aid workers, who risk their lives to go into conflict zones and who, by virtue of prior payments, have a target put on their heads. They become ripe for the picking for the next round of negotiation and payment.
Now, the United States for decades has had a policy of not paying ransom. And the reason is simple: We know that it leads to more kidnappings, and ultimately more kidnappings lead to more killing. We’ve argued that the only way to dry up the market for kidnapping in the first place is to take away the profits and to hold the kidnappers accountable. But I hear these words and I know it’s difficult. I met the other day with the families of victims and with families of those held. And every one of us inevitably asked the question: What about the innocents who are held by their captors? As a parent, I fully understand the feelings of any parent who knows that their loved one is being held in this way. And privately, people may undertake their efforts, but governments – may choose to undertake efforts – but governments need to make a clear choice here. And I want to emphasize it was not United States policy that caused ISIL’s brutal and barbaric kidnappings and televised executions. It was ISIL’s myopic and miscalculated belief that in doing that for all the world to see, it will somehow advance their extremist agenda. That is how twisted their thinking is.
Ours is obviously a hard policy and it’s a hard policy to look at and live by when you’re looking at a parent of one of those hostages and you’re trying to explain it. But it’s not why ISIL kidnaps. It’s not why ISIL kills. It is why ISIL must be stopped. And it’s why we will never stop working to set our citizens free and bring them home to their families. And it’s why today, together with Algeria, Canada, and the United States, we’ve all developed and we will make available training modules that help countries to prevent and deny the benefit of kidnapping for terrorists. It’s why we’re going to continue to dry up ISIL’s illicit funding, and ultimately we know that our success depends on the ability of local communities to be able to prevent radicalization in the first place.
For our efforts to be effective, they’re going to have to be driven by local knowledge and responsiveness to the concerns of local communities. That means we need to enlist the support of local political and religious leaders, journalists, and educators in order to repudiate the religious incitement and the sectarian rhetoric that groups like ISIL use in order to recruit terrorists. We have to take that away from them, and we have the ability to do it if everybody will work to do that together. It means integrating a focus on women and girls in all of our work. It means supporting local communities with public and private funding in their fight to counter violent extremism.
We launched the Global Fund on Community Engagement last year in order to put local communities in the driver’s seat. I’m pleased to announce today that the United States is planning to contribute an additional 3 million to that effort on top of the 2 million we already provided immediately. And I’m grateful to those governments that have already pledged their support, and we urge all other countries here today to step up their commitments. And given the more immediate challenge that is posed by ISIL, I’d ask that our partners encourage the fund to make grants to local organizations that focus specifically on anti-ISIL projects.
So let me close by being crystal clear: The evil that ISIL represents is not something that Iraq or even the region can or should take on alone. We face a common threat, and our response has to be all hands on deck. We saw the arrests that Australia had to conduct just a few days ago. That tells you how far and wide this can spread and how quickly. This is our opportunity to prove to the world what we can build together, and the power of our ideas is far more powerful than what the terrorists seek to destroy. Acting together with clear objectives, we can protect the innocent, we can preserve the peace, we can empower local communities in their fight to be able to do the same. And that’s why this forum is so important and that’s why we are committed to working with every single one of you as we try to protect our citizens and provide a much more stable and peaceful path to the future.
******************
September 23, 2014
Waldorf Astoria Hotel
New York, NY
Taller de Armado y Programación de Robots en el 2do. Campamento Científico del Uruguay
Este innovador taller, que dio inicio a un Programa llamado "Robot Diplomacy", de la embajada de Estados Unidos en Uruguay, tuvo lugar en el marco del 2do. Campamento Latinoamericano de Ciencias, que lleva adelante la Dirección de Innovación Ciencia y Tecnología del MEC, con el apopo de ANEP y UTU en Minas, departamento de Lavalleja. La Ingeniera Mecánica Theresa Dixon, de la embajada de los Estados Unidos en Montevideo, fue la encargada de dictar este taller.
[U.S. Embassy Photo: Pablo Castro / Copyright info]
Director-General Ahmet Üzümcü hosted an informal retreat attended by Permanent Representatives to the OPCW to discuss the future direction of the Organisation. Over 80 ambassadors attended the day-long event, which was held in the town of Noordwijk close to The Hague.
Aldo Malavasi, IAEA Deputy Director General and Head of the Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications, welcomes HE Mr Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, President of Mongolia on his arrival at the IAEA Headquarters in Vienna, Austria. 15 October 2014
Photo Credit: Dean Calma / IAEA
IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano met with Hon Bronwyn Bishop, Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives at the IAEA Headquarters in Vienna, Austria. 10 October 2014.
Photo Credit: Dean Calma / IAEA
Taller de Armado y Programación de Robots en el 2do. Campamento Científico del Uruguay
Este innovador taller, que dio inicio a un Programa llamado "Robot Diplomacy", de la embajada de Estados Unidos en Uruguay, tuvo lugar en el marco del 2do. Campamento Latinoamericano de Ciencias, que lleva adelante la Dirección de Innovación Ciencia y Tecnología del MEC, con el apopo de ANEP y UTU en Minas, departamento de Lavalleja. La Ingeniera Mecánica Theresa Dixon, de la embajada de los Estados Unidos en Montevideo, fue la encargada de dictar este taller.
[U.S. Embassy Photo: Pablo Castro / Copyright info]
Taller de Armado y Programación de Robots en el 2do. Campamento Científico del Uruguay
Este innovador taller, que dio inicio a un Programa llamado "Robot Diplomacy", de la embajada de Estados Unidos en Uruguay, tuvo lugar en el marco del 2do. Campamento Latinoamericano de Ciencias, que lleva adelante la Dirección de Innovación Ciencia y Tecnología del MEC, con el apopo de ANEP y UTU en Minas, departamento de Lavalleja. La Ingeniera Mecánica Theresa Dixon, de la embajada de los Estados Unidos en Montevideo, fue la encargada de dictar este taller.
[U.S. Embassy Photo: Pablo Castro / Copyright info]
Presentation of credentials by the new Resident Representative of Hungary, Mr Károly Dán to IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano. IAEA, Vienna, Austria, 11 December 2014.
Photo Credit: Petr Pavlicek / IAEA
HE Ms Roman Tesfaye, First Lady of Ethiopia, paid a courtesy visit to IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano at the IAEA Headquarters in Vienna, Austria. 5 November 2014.
Photo Credit: Dean Calma / IAEA
People stand with placards at a demonstration staged in front of the Downing Street gates, in central London, on February 24, 2022 to protest against Russia's invasion of Ukraine. - Britain on Thursday imposed a biting package of sanctions on Russia that Prime Minister Boris Johnson said would degrade its economy "for years to come", as he slammed President Vladimir Putin in unusually personal terms. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP) (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images)
Taller de Armado y Programación de Robots en el 2do. Campamento Científico del Uruguay
Este innovador taller, que dio inicio a un Programa llamado "Robot Diplomacy", de la embajada de Estados Unidos en Uruguay, tuvo lugar en el marco del 2do. Campamento Latinoamericano de Ciencias, que lleva adelante la Dirección de Innovación Ciencia y Tecnología del MEC, con el apopo de ANEP y UTU en Minas, departamento de Lavalleja. La Ingeniera Mecánica Theresa Dixon, de la embajada de los Estados Unidos en Montevideo, fue la encargada de dictar este taller.
[U.S. Embassy Photo: Pablo Castro / Copyright info]
Taller de Armado y Programación de Robots en el 2do. Campamento Científico del Uruguay
Este innovador taller, que dio inicio a un Programa llamado "Robot Diplomacy", de la embajada de Estados Unidos en Uruguay, tuvo lugar en el marco del 2do. Campamento Latinoamericano de Ciencias, que lleva adelante la Dirección de Innovación Ciencia y Tecnología del MEC, con el apopo de ANEP y UTU en Minas, departamento de Lavalleja. La Ingeniera Mecánica Theresa Dixon, de la embajada de los Estados Unidos en Montevideo, fue la encargada de dictar este taller.
[U.S. Embassy Photo: Pablo Castro / Copyright info]
Taller de Armado y Programación de Robots en el 2do. Campamento Científico del Uruguay
Este innovador taller, que dio inicio a un Programa llamado "Robot Diplomacy", de la embajada de Estados Unidos en Uruguay, tuvo lugar en el marco del 2do. Campamento Latinoamericano de Ciencias, que lleva adelante la Dirección de Innovación Ciencia y Tecnología del MEC, con el apopo de ANEP y UTU en Minas, departamento de Lavalleja. La Ingeniera Mecánica Theresa Dixon, de la embajada de los Estados Unidos en Montevideo, fue la encargada de dictar este taller.
[U.S. Embassy Photo: Pablo Castro / Copyright info]